Call a major company, and you’d be surprised if a real person answered the phone. It’s more likely that you’ll first be told which button to press based on your question. Pressing that button opens a new menu of options, which leads to another branch, and so on.

For customers, the process can be frustrating but as you’re pushing your keypad, the company’s computer system is collecting information about you. By the time you finally get to speak to a customer service rep, you’ve already answered most of the questions that she would have needed to ask. She can read your selections then focus on the task that the computer can’t accomplish: identifying the details of the issue and solving your problem.

This process describes customer service automation in one of its most common and simple forms, and the benefit to the company is clear: the less time staff spend asking routine questions, the more time they’ll have for the more difficult problems. The company will become more efficient.

Call automation is just one part of a growing trend in both sales and customer service. That trend includes asking customers to select answers from a website FAQ instead of sending an email. It includes autoresponders whose content and sales recommendations are based on contact lists segmented by purchase, demographics or registration. It includes algorithms that make special offers based on previous choices. It even includes chatbots that turn up in the corners of websites and use text and natural language processing to create the illusion that the customer is talking to a real customer service rep.

All this artificial intelligence can be very effective.

When Smyths Toys, a toy company in the U.K. and Ireland, increased its online marketing, it found that it also generated significant volumes of abandoned shopping carts and customer service tickets. The company turned to an automation software firm to solve these problems. According to the software firm’s case study, the toy company focused first on tracking the customer journey on the website, and in particular on the checkout form. When customers contacted a customer care representative, that rep could see where the customer had been and precisely where they had got stuck. That quickly improved the response rate. When a customer used a promo code that expired before the transaction was complete, for example, the rep was able to quickly identify the problem and honor the discount.

The software was then able to use the data it collected to reach out to customers using chat, SMS, or voice based on their on-site experience. Because it was able to predict customer needs, a simple form of artificial intelligence, nearly two-thirds of the customers offered live chat messaging responded positively, reducing the number of support tickets.

It’s no wonder that a 2018 survey by The Economist Intelligence Unit found that 90 percent of respondents expected AI to improve growth, and 27 percent had already incorporated AI into key processes and services. Nearly half had at least one AI pilot project already under way.

Many of the automation systems made by firms like HubSpot, Salesforce and Genesys (which powered Smyth’s Toys’ software) are aimed at medium to large businesses. Service organizations generally use them to gather information, to automate routine customer issues such as resetting passwords and tracking orders, to route cases to the right agents, and to pre-fill fields for both agents and customers.

But complete systems aren’t cheap and their implementation requires re-training staff and making new technical demands.

Even small firms though can begin automating their processes themselves:

A FAQ page that predicts and answers common questions can be bought off the shelf.

Customer tracking through website cookies can reveal bottlenecks, allowing the business to deliver better options and build a smoother path from recommendation through selection to checkout.

Contact list segmentation is a staple of email marketing and doesn’t require powerful, state-of-the-art technology to use. It just demands an understanding of customer demographics and a marketing team that can produce targeted content and track the results.

Even small firms have plenty of options to implement simple automation and AI-powered sales and customer service processes. But small firms also have an advantage: they can talk to customers directly. Automation works best when it improves a personal connection, not when it replaces it.

There still needs to be a friendly voice at the end of the phone.

About Joel Comm

As an Internet pioneer, Joel has been creating profitable websites, software, products and helping entrepreneurs succeed since 1995. He has been at the frontlines of live video online since 2008 and has a deep expertise in using tools such as Facebook Live, Periscope, Instagram or Snapchat to broadcast a clearly defined message to a receptive audience or leveraging the power of webinar and meeting technologies.

Joel is a New York Times best-selling author of 15 books, including “The AdSense Code,” “Click Here to Order: Stories from the World’s Most Successful Entrepreneurs,” “KaChing: How to Run an Online Business that Pays and Pays and Twitter Power 3.0.” He is Co-Host of The Bad Crypto Podcast one of the top crypto-related shows in the world and has spoken before thousands of people around the world and seeks to inspire, equip and entertain.

Bank of America, N.A. engages with Joel Comm to provide informational materials for your discussion or review purposes only. Joel Comm is a registered trademark, used pursuant to license. The third parties within articles are used under license from Joel Comm. Consult your financial, legal and accounting advisors, as neither Bank of America, its affiliates, nor their employees provide legal, accounting and tax advice.

Search for answers

Ask the community

Most of the time, you just want to find content that has a particular phrase. Here are the easiest ways to find the content you want.

Enclose your search phrase in quotes. Search will try to find content with those words in the order you enclosed them. A search for "marketing advice" is going to return content with the phrase "marketing advice".

Search for content that has certain words, but not necessarily all of the words in order. This is the most basic search. Simply enter your search terms. For example: accept credit cards This will search for documents containing the words accept, credit, and cards

Using OR. The OR operator links two terms and finds a matching document if either of the terms exist in a document. To search for documents that contain either "web design" or just "online marketing" use the query: "web design" OR "online marketing"

Using AND. The AND operator says that the search should return content in which all of the search terms are present. To search for documents that contain both "web design" and just "online marketing" use a search like this: "web design" AND "online marketing"

We would appreciate having your voice in the Small Business Community. You can participate in a number of ways.

Start a discussion in our member-to-member forums. By participating in the Small Business Community, our members gain knowledge and connections that give them a competitive advantage in building a successful business. Take advantage of the collective experience and expertise of the community to get small business ideas and help with a specific question or business challenge.

To post your question in our community, in the “Ask the community” section, from the drop-down, select the category that you’d like to post to, then click the “Start a Discussion” button. If you simply want to introduce yourself to the community, please select the “Introduce Yourself” category.

Note: you must be a logged-in member of the community to post a discussion. Please login or become a member to participate.

Share your small business story. Do you have an interesting story to tell related to your small business? Have some advice for other entrepreneurs to help them avoid some of the pitfalls of small business ownership? We invite you to share your story with the Small Business Community. Click the “Share Your Story” link and simply answer the questions in our Share Your Story template.

Answer a question. Are you an expert in a particular area of running and growing a successful small business? Would you like to help other small business entrepreneurs by answering their questions? We would appreciate your expertise in the Small Business Community. Please click the “Answer a Question” link to see a list of the open questions asked by members of the community.

Bank of America is not responsible for user posts and other user content appearing on this website and does not endorse or guarantee the perspectives, the advice, the users, the businesses, or the products or services sold by any users or businesses that appear on this website.